fallenupright wrote:
adoptahorse wrote:
fallenupright wrote:
adoptahorse wrote:
Fallen - what is reined cow horse?

Umm... well the reined part is reining. The cow part has 2 parts apparently, but they only do one at the "club" where I showed. They don't do the herd work part where I was showing, probably for time reasons, shows would take FOREVER if there were 3 parts! Also since I was a "green as grass" rider, I only do the boxing part of the cows (keeping the cow at one end) and don't have to take the cow down the rail or turn it, which is standard for non-green riders. Its fun, my grouchypants mare really likes it, and she's not really an arena fan generally. 

The video explains it better than I ever could!
OMG!  That looks like SO much fun!  Do you have cows?  How do you find a place to practice?  Very hard to find cows where I live.

No, I don't have cows. The "local" (about an hour away) club has practices once a week in the summer and once a month in the winter. (Of course I didn't make any of them in the summer, *sigh*) Finding a local club level (ie not recognized) place that does it seems to be the best way to get into it with low pressure. You can do a lot of the stuff without cows - just practice running down the fence and rolling back, plus the reining stuff is still all useful for the cows. I'm going to a clinic on the weekend I think, they are doing something called "working the flag" which apparently is practice for the cow part without cows, but I don't know how it works as I've never seen it. 

Mya had never worked a cow at all before her first cow horse show (with my trainer aboard, not me!) but she did really well. She had been around cows though, so we knew she wasn't afraid of them! We did OK our first show too, I messed up and the cow got away, but we got it back under control. Practice would have helped, but I'm out to have fun, so NBD to me. 

I went to a cattle sorting clinic in November and it was a blast.  But 1.5 hours away.  So much fun.  She had a flag cow.  Instead of a flag, it was a fake cow on a electric pulley.  They do sortings and ropings out there on a regular basis.  No one does penning here anymore because there is no one with enough cows.  That was one of the trainers that I was considering for Marley but no one does cow stuff here any closer than 1.5 hours and that's tough to do on a regular basis.

It was fun doing the sorting and seeing how the horses get into it.  I liked it because it was a real job for them vs just riding in a ring.  I just got an email about another sorting clinic in January that I'll probably go to.


Somewhere - behind the rider you've become, the long hours in the saddle,
the ribbons you didn't win, the falls you've taken, the tears you've cried,
and the horses you've given your heart to - is the little girl who fell in love
with the sport and never looked back. Ride for her.
-- Author Unknown